The Newark Experience

Newark Architecture Collection, 1903-1993

Collection of miscellaneous materials relating to architecture in Newark in the Cummings New Jersey Information Center in the Newark Public Library. More from the Newark Archives Project.

Directories of Buildings and Sites

Newark Landmark Treasures: A Guide to the Landmark Buildings, Parks, Public Art & Historic Districts in New Jersey's Metropolis

Mark W. Gordon and Anthony Schuman, editors. Newark, Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, 2016. Available?

National Register of History Places Inventory - Newark

NJIT has digitized the National Register of Historic Places applications for Newark sites. Applications usually include site histories, building specifications, maps, bibliographies, etc.

National Register of Historical Places - Essex County

Directory of Essex County sites which have been designated as official federal landmarks.

Newark Historic Landmarks & Landmark Districts

By district, with maps.

Reinventing Newark: Visions of the City From the Twentieth Century

Unrealized plans for individual projects for Newark, including civic centers, recreation areas, commercial districts, hospitals and universities. From the Rutgers-Newark Graduate Department of Public Administration.

Reinventing Newark: Visions of the City from the old Twentieth Century

Marc Holzer, et.al., Newark, N.J., National Center for Public Productivity, 2005.

Exhibition catalog. Available?

Buildings and Sites

Newark, New Jersey: Old and New

Charles F. Cummings. Newark, N.J., Newark Public Library, 2002. Available?

Newark Area Building Photographs, 1900-1907

Finding aid for the collection at the New Jersey Historical Society. Includes over 200 images of buildings, houses, parks, institutions, and churches.

Newark, New Jersey Photographs

Finding aid for the hugh (25 linear feet) collection of Newark photographs at the New Jersey Historical Society. "The bulk of these images are ca. 1890-1940, although there are many street corner views from the 1960s...Photographers include William Cone and others."

Civic

The City of Newark Archives and Records Management Center has the Minutes and Documents of the Committee on Public Buildings from 1875 to 1917. The Committee approved bids for the construction, decoration, and maintenance of public buildings (offices, fire houses, courts, etc.) in Newark.

"The Old Jail on New Street"

History and photographic tour. The Essex County Jail is oldest public building in the county. Designed by John Haviland, it was built in 1837.

Old Essex County Jail

A historic preservation studio by GSAPP, Columbia University. 2019.

Specifications for Building the Custom-house at Newark, New Jersey; Including Accommodations for a Post Office and United States Court Room.

United States. Dept. of the Treasury. Office of the Construction of Buildings. Washington, D.C., A.O.P.Nicholson, Public Printer, 1855. Available?

Specifications for the Construction of a New City Hall Building and Boiler House on Broad Street

John H. Ely. Newark, N.J., 1902. Available?

Newark's New City Hall Opening

Banquet menu from the opening day (December 20, 1906) festivities.

Newark City Hall

Postcard, 1906.

Essex County Court House, Newark, New Jersey. [Including] Report of Cass Gilbert, architect of new Court House. Description of mural paintings and statutary. Description of old Court House by Joseph L. Munn, counsel of Essex County Commission.

Essex County (N.J.) Building Commission. Newark, 1908. Available?

Commemorating the Opening of Pennsylvania Station, Newark, New Jersey, March 23, 1935

Illustrated booklet produced for the opening ceremony. Section on "Architectural Features" includes McKim, Mead, and White's diagrammatic street-level plan, as well as a cross-section. Also includes a section on the "World's Greatest Railroad Lift Bridge."

"Pennsylvania Station, Newark"

IN Christopher Brown. Still Standing: A Century of Urban Train Station Design. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005.Available?

"Market Street Station, Newark, N.J.; Views and Plans,"

Architectural Record 79, March 1936, pp. 199-205. Available?

NJ Transit's Newark Broad Street Station: Stories of Transportation & Change

Richard Kirk Mills. Newark, NJ Transit, 2007. Available?

Broad Street Station

1981 application for National Register of Historic Places status. Includes images and floor plans.

Newark Broad Street Station Interpretive Panels

Nancy L. Zerbe. Metuchen, ARCH2, 2003. Available?

New Stage for a City: Designing the New Jersey Performing Arts Center

Michael Webb. Mulgrave, Vic., Images Publishing, 1998. Available?

"Encore Performance: Newark's New Performing Arts Center is Music to the Ears of a City Struggling to Rebound,'

Joseph Giovannini. Architecture 87(3), March 1, 1998, p. 118.

Barton Myers design for NJPAC. Rutgers-restricted Access

"Better Beginnings [Newark Science Park High School],"

AnnMarie Marano. Contract 51(2), February 2009, pp.42-45.

Einhorn Yaffee Prescott's design for Science Park High. Rutgers-restricted Access

Corporate

"The Mutual Benefit LIfe Insurance Buildings,"

Julia Sabine. Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society 75(3), July 1957, 180-196.

Study of the various home office buildings erected by the company between 1847 and 1927. Available?

"Prudential Life Insurance Co. Building, Newark, N.J.,"

Architecture 59, January 1929, pp.29-32. Available?

For a Greater New Jersey

New Jersey Bill Telephone Company, 1929.

The New Jersey Bell Headquarters Building. Available?

"Building for the New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. in Newark; Views and Floor Plan,"

Architectural Forum 52, May 1930, pp.667-687.. Available?

National Newark Building: Newark's Tallest Building: Evoluation - Deterioration - Rebirth

Nat Bodian.

National Newark Building, 744 Broad Street.

Photos, floorplans, and current specs.

"G.Krueger Brewing Co., Lager Stock House Addition, Newark, N.J.

Architectural Record 76, November 1934, pp.336-337.

Designed by Waldemar Mortensen Available?

"Star Electric Building, Newark, N.J.; With Views, Floor Plan and Construction Outline,"

Architectural Forum 64, May 1936,.pp.426-428. Available?

"Warehouses, Sherwin-Williams Co., and P. Ballantine & Sons Bottling Plant, Newark, N.J.; Views, Plans and Construction,"

Architectural Forum 66, March 1937,.pp.174-181. Available?

Newark and Its Gateway Complex.

Thomas Dolan. A NewarkMetro report. Social history of the Newark Gateway Center complex, built in four stages between 1971 and 1988.

Parks

Branch Brook Park

Description and history. Park originally (1895) designed by the firm of John Bogart and Nathan F. Barrett; design revised by Frederick Law and John Charles Olmsted (1900).

Branch Brook Park

Kathleen P. Galop and Catharine Longendyck. Charleston, S.C., Arcadia, 2007.

Part of the "Images of America" series. Available?

Olmsted Parks in New Jersey

Jeanne Kolva. Atglen, Pa., Schiffer, 2011. Available?

Religious

A Survey of Ecclesiastical Architecture Built in Newark from 1810-1865

Kenneth B. Schnall. M.A. Thesis, Newark State College, 1965. Available?

First Church in Newark. Historical discourses, relating to the First Presbyterian Church in Newark; originally delivered to the congregation of that church during the month of January, 1851

Jonathan F. Stearns. Newark, Daily Advertiser, 1853. Available?

Old First Presbyterian Church 1668. Image

First Presbyterian Church, Newark, New Jersey

Lists the church records deposited in the Presbyterian Historical Society In Philadelphia.

Centennial Celebration of the Dedication of the First Presbyterian Church

Newark, N.J., January Fourth and Fifth, 1891.

Old Town Church Endowment: The First Presbyterian Church in Newark and its Relation to its Property Interests

Walter S. Nichols. Newark, Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in Newark, 1916.

The Old First Presbyterian Church, Newark, New Jersey. The Founding Church of Newark, 1666-1966

Newark, Old First Presbyterian Church, 1966. Available?

Other materials on the Old First Presbyterian Church

View of South Park Presbyterian, Fronting the Entrance to Lincoln Park, Newark, N.J.

1870. The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Trinity Church, Newark, N.J.: A Brief Account of its Origin and History

Edward W. Scudder. 1931. Available?

Grace Church in Newark: The First 100 Years, 1837-1937

Edward F. Bataille. Newark, N.J., Kenny Press, 1937. Available?

Grace Church

Designed by Richard Upjohn (1848). Photographs from New Jersey Churchscape.

House of Prayer and Rectory

Postcard. The House of Prayer Episcopal Church was incorporated in 1849.

House of Prayer Episcopal Church Records, 1849-1976.

Finding aide to the archival collection at the New Jersey Historical Society.

St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral: An Historical Reflection 1850-2000

Robert James Wister. Illustrated history.

The North Reformed Church, Newark, New Jersey: An Architectural Study

Julia Elizabeth Sabine. Newark, N.J., The Consistory, 1959.

Church designed (1857/59) by William Henry Kirk. Available?

View of 1st (German) Baptist, Mercer St., Newark, N.J.

1870. The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

One Hundred Fifty Years' History of the First Baptist Peddie Memorial Church, Newark, New Jersey. 1801-1951

1951. Available?

Peddie Memorial Baptist Church

Image from New Jersey Churchscape.

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart: History

A Virtual Tour is also available at this site.

Gothic Pride: The Story of Building a Great Cathedral in Newark

Brian Regan. New Brunswick, Rivergate Books, 2012. Available?

The Story of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, New Jersey: A Statement of Faith

Mary Cabrini Durkin, Strasbourg, France: Editions du Signe, 2003. Available?

"Italian Baptist Church, Newark, N.J.,"

Architecture 62, July 1930, pp.21-22. Available?

Residential

The Ballantine House and the Decorative Arts Galleries at the Newark Museum

Ulysses Grant Dietz. Newark, N.J., The Musuem, 1994.

Designed by architect George Edward Harny for the Ballantine family, the Ballantine House is last remaining 19th century residence on Washington Park. Currently part of the Newark Museum, the period rooms have been restored to about 1891 and are open to the public. Available?

"Ballantine House: Preserving a Newark Landmark,"

Philip H. Curtis. Newark Museum Quarterly 27(4), Fall 1976, pp.1-44. Available?

Continental Hotel

Image, circa 1907-1914

The Hine Estate.

Newark, E.H. Lum, 191-?. Available?

Krueger-Scott Mansion

New Jersey Historic Trust photo/description.

Krueger Mansion: Feasibility Study.

Extensive study prepared for Newark by the Grad Partnership architectural firm in 1987 for the renovation of the Krueger-Scott mansion. Available?

Castle Newark: The Krueger-Scott Mansion

2-Part documentary by Samantha J. Boardman. 2009

Decadence & Decay: The Mansion Project

Anonda Bell et al. Newark, N.J., Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, 2009

Exhibit, September 8-November 11, 2009. Available?

Narrative of the Krueger-Scott Mansion Project: Constructing Newark History

Katie Singer. New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 3(1), 2017, pp.151-176.

Newark, New Jersey’s once proposed Krueger-Scott African-American Cultural Center (KSAACC) tells a story of history, economy, race, built environment, and much more. The Center’s development mirrors other urban stories with regard to race, preservation, urban failure, and memory, while also offering a unique understanding of Newark’s own history...The KSAACC was met with and has continued to receive resistance from some of Newark’s citizens as well as local journalists and ultimately the very politicians who had at first supported the idea...This paper is about the creation of African-American historical knowledge and the ways America sees fit to make it public knowledge."

"Historic Landmark Feigenspan Mansion in Newark Sells for $1.4M,"

Richard Khavkine. The Star-Ledger February 15, 2011.

Includes 9 photographs, mostly interior shots, by Robert Sciarrino.

Tiffany Setting

Eric Wills. Preservation 63(5), September/October 2011, 26-31.

Restoration of a mansion supposedly built for the Tiffany family in the Forest Hill section of Newark.

"Domesticating Glass Walls: Mies van der Rohe's Colonnade Park in Newark, N.J. and I.M. Pei's Kips Bay Plaza in Manhattan,"

Progressive Architecture 42, October 1961, pp.148-155. Available?

Guidelines for the Development of the James Street Commons, Newark, New Jersey

New York, Gruzen & Partners. Urban Design & Planning Division, 1977. Available?

Other

Newark Female Charitable Society

Image and history of the society.

Essex Club

Designed by Guilbert and Betelle (1926), this is the current home of the New Jersey Historical Society. New Jersey Historic Trust photo/description.

View of Centre Market, Newark, N.J.

1870. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Architecture Library at NJIT is building a growing collection of digital materials dealing with the Newark built environment. The Digital Archive of Newark Architecture includes newspaper and journal articles (restricted access), books, atlases, maps, government documents, and other materials.

"Digital Archive of Newark Architecture"

Maya Gervits and Jessica O'Donnell. Art Documentation 30(1), Spring 2011, pp.43-47. Rutgers-restricted Access

Creating a Mobile App with Augmented Reality for the Digital Archive of Newark Architecture through Collaboration

Maya Gervits, Hyejin Hannah Kum-Biocca, and Monica Kenzie. Art Documentation 42(2), September 2023, pp. 231-240. Rutgers-restricted Access

Charles F. Cummings compiled a list of architects associated with Newark landmark buildings which appeared as a series of articles published in the Newark Star-Ledger in 1999:

"Glory of the City's Designers Still Lives on in Their Buildings." March 11, 1999, p.3 [A-Ge]
"More Architectural Gems: The Courthouse and Museum," March 18, 1999, p.4 [Gi-H]
"The Glory and the Grandeur of the City's Religious Edifices." March 25, 1999, p.3 [J-Ra]
"City is Known for Traditional Architecture and Innovative Designs." April 1, 1999, p.4 [Re-Z]

Newark Postcards

The University of Maryland has digitized over 60 early 20th century Newark postcards in its National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection.